Revision as of 13:31, 5 December 2010

Galician is the Romance language most closely related to Portuguese. It is spoken in Galicia, which is in north-western Spain. Portuguese speakers (both European and Brazilian alike) will usually tell you that Galician is a dialect of their own language, while Galicians will tell you the opposite in a manner similar to that which exists between Bulgarians and Slav Macedonians. Whichever the case, Portuguese and Galician speakers can understand each other almost perfectly without a translator.

Galician has a different spelling and accent from Portuguese, and contains unique colloquialisms and traces of former cultures, using a number of pre-Indoeuropean, Celtic and Germanic words not found Portuguese. On the other hand, Arabic words found in Portuguese, are not found in Galician.

Sounds

Galician sounds are similar to Portuguese, but nasalization is not nearly as pervasive. The letter x, pronounced sh in both languages, is used mainly in Galician words; whereas in Portuguese words the letters j or gare used, where it is pronounced like "zh".

like 'g' in "gone". In western Galicia, g is sometimes aspirated, like 'h' in "house": xogo ('game'). If followed by e or i, g must be written with a silent u: xoguete ('toy'), preguiza ('laziness'). If followed by a pronounced u and then by e or i, that u bears a diaeresis: bilingüe ('bilingual'), Güiana ('Guyana').

h

silent: harmonía ('harmony').

j

like 'su' in "pleasure"

k

used only in foriegn words like "kilo"

l

like 'l' in "love": lúa ('moon').

m

like 'm' in "month": amarelo ('yellow').

n

like 'n' in "nice": nai ('mother'). Like 'ng' in "song" if it's at the end of a word: non ('no').

ñ

like 'ny' in "canyon" : xuño ('June'). Transliterad as nh in Portuguese and ny in Catalan.

p

like 'p' in "party": pai ('father').

q

like 'q' in "unique". Q is almost always followed by a silent u and then by e or i: queixo ('cheese'/'chin'), arquivo ('archive').

r

trill with the tip of the tongue, like other Romance languages: terra ('earth', 'land', 'ground').